“I couldn’t eat all camp, I couldn’t train well, and I was vomiting every day of training. It was horrible, but I still showed up, still fought, but I was in the worst shape of my life, and he still didn’t knock me out.
“But sometimes, you can’t jump higher than you can, so I needed to make a step back.”
With his winning streak halted, Jotko next faced former Top 10 light heavyweight Misha Cirkunov, who was making the move down to middleweight for the first time.
“The last fight, with Misha Cirkunov, I was in horrible condition,” continued the Polish veteran, who scored a split decision win in the October encounter to get himself back in the win column and heading in the right direction again.
He explained that after contracting the coronavirus, he remained sick for a number of weeks, keeping him from being in the gym. Once he did return, a training session with his first UFC opponent, Bruno Santos, left him with broken ribs just four weeks before the fight.
Once again, the 32-year-old divisional stalwart turned up and did his best, edging out the Latvian-Canadian on the cards.
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“I didn’t do sparring or wrestling for four weeks before the fight,” he said. “But I still showed up and beat Misha Cirkunov.”